How important is Google Places and Google Maps for SEO? I recently received a letter from Google congratulating me on my company website being in the top 1% of all U.S. businesses for being tops in local business search. They sent along a cool window sticker with our custom QR barcode for the ultimate in geekdom. But how important is Google Places and Google Maps, and how do you capitalize on this from an SEO standing?

I have done lots of searching to find out…